Labels

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Well, here it is the last day of September. I have managed to share a bit of photo inspiration every day for the entire month of September. I have no idea of the effectiveness of this effort. I will hope that if my posts reached even ONE person who was helped or inspired to preserve their family photos then my job is well rewarded. Who knows how many people for how many generations going forward will be impacted by that one person delving into their family photos.Further, because of my effort, I have spurred myself to get a bit more of my own family's photo history preserved. Although I am a photo organizer, and well on my way to being in good shape with my own family photos - I consider myself, and my other family members far from photo perfection.So today's mantras are:Photo Preservation progress is as important as Photo Preservation perfection.ANDBegin Preserving your Family Photos NOW and you will never be any further behind than you are today.Here is my final bit of photo inspiration. Please share all of my posts with anyone who you think needs a little nudge to get their family photo collection preserved for a lifetime of memories.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Today is the official Save Your Photos Day! Today is the reason I have been posting every day this month with encouragements about preserving your family memories.

Don't wait another minute - start today.Choose a place in your house where you can gather all the boxes and bins that contain your family photo and memorabilia collection and go on a treasure hunt through your house. Look for all the photos albums, loose photos, shoeboxes and drawers full of photos and memories. Search out the video tapes, dvds, vhs and beta tapes, old reel to reel film, historic diaries and journals and anything else that is precious to your family and your history.Do it now - you will never be any further behind than you are today!

Friday, September 25, 2015

Yesterday, I accompanied my aunt to the historic site where she is a docent: Locust Grove. I have been to this site many times before but this would be my first time accompanying a school group on their 5th grade history tour. I thought this might present the history in a different way from what I had seen before and it did.Upon arrival, my aunt asked if I would snap some photos of the tour experience and I agreed. However, I had left my DSLR back in PA and didn't have it on this trip, leaving me with only my iphone. Though I do use and appreciate my phone camera, I didn't think it would give me what I was looking for in photo quality for the pictures I imagined taking. That's when my aunt handed me something I hadn't seen for a while - a Point and Shoot camera!

When she first placed it in my hand I was confused... I thought OMG, I don't know how to work this! There is no viewfinder for putting up to my eye, no settings for aperture and shutter speed. It felt too small in my hand, like I might drop it... I was given instructions and thought I could do it. I was nervous, a point and shoot - could I even remember back to these camera days? It had been so long since I didn't have total control over my camera settings.My first thought was good grief, I hope it lets me turn off the flash - which it thankfully did and I could avoid flash photos for the entirety of the time I used it. My aunt also added that there was a silent button so it wouldn't make noise when I snapped a picture - YAY! Off we went. The camera strap around my wrist - handy, a drop prevention unlike my cell phone camera.

Departing the visitor center and the original cabin staff office we headed off with our selection of touring 5th graders - down towards the house in continuing past until we arrived at the outdoor kitchen (summer kitchen) building. The students had been divided into four sections and we had about 12 kids as well as a few chaperones.

I liked the original brick floors, the dry sink that turns into a table and the array of cooking implements required for open hearth cooking.

Stepping outside the kitchen while the students tested out some corn bread, I looked out on one of the other outbuildings we would visit - the tool shop.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room in the tool shop for me to hear that part of the tour - but I'm sure this won't be my last visit to Locust Grove.

Then it was off to the spinning room. There were a lot of sheep at locust grove 200 years ago and therefore a need to card and spin wool. They also dyed their own wool. I was REALLY surprised to learn that the lichen on the trees outside the spinning room creates a pink/purple color when used in dyeing wool - that was probably the coolest thing I learned. It made we want to learn more about dyeing my own wool.

I found the lichen to be extremely cool. I think after reading about botany and mosses in Elizabeth Gilbert's "The Signature of All Things," I was fascinated at a scientific level.

The last part of the tour included all three floors of the 18th century home. The kids learned about the home's owners, the Croghan family as well as it's relationship to George Rogers Clark, his brother, William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark fame) and numerous American presidents. They also learned how in 2006, a team of historic researchers had helped the home be restored to an accurate rendition of how it would have looked during the time the Croghan family lived there. The paint colors and wallpaper reproductions would have looked very close and in some cases exactly the way it would have been back in its original days.

At the end of the tour, we left the historic home and the students RAN - and I mean RAN off to get their lunches. I had been surprised during the tour that a group of 5th graders had been so seemingly distracted, interruptive, and so difficult to control. I figured I just didn't remember what 5th graders were like.As we left the building and watched the kids run off to the picnic grounds, my aunt breathed a sigh of relief and told me that I had just experienced the worst behaved school group she had ever led on a tour. We apparently had the most difficult of the four sections of the school's 5th graders. Hopefully, there was something historical and meaningful that they will take with them.The funniest part of the tour (well, so I thought) was when we stopped outside the smokehouse and my aunt was trying to describe what it was used for - curing meats - but when she asked the kids to guess what they might have smoked in the small stone building, one kid raised her hand and when she was called on - said WEED?All in all - this post is about a camera - hahahaMy experience was that I was frustrated when I realized that this tiny little P&S camera couldn't post photos to instagram! One of the benefits of the point and shoot was that it was small and easily carried in a pocket or purse. I liked having the wrist strap. It would have been really tough to do a selfie with this baby which is why there are no photos of me and my aunt at this location - bummer.

I think the Canon point and shoot did better in low light situations without a flash than my iphone 6 however, my husband's Samsung 5 does great in low light. The point and shoot couldn't post a photo immediately- the process to get the photos to my computer took a LOT more work with a camera than it does with my phone camera.There are not a lot of choices for changing the focus - therefore, every photo you take tries to focus on everything in the shot.. unlike my dslr which allows all kinds of focus and lighting options.

I'm not sure the Point and Shoot camera has a long life in this world - the ease and convenience of using a phone camera for most of the same things as a P&S camera plus the ability to instantly connect those photos wirelessly, etc... makes me think that these little cameras may soon go the way of a roll of film!

Thursday, September 24, 2015

It may not be IF your computer will fail - it may be WHEN...It may not be IF your cell phone will fall in a toilet - it may be WHEN...It may not be IF your cloud storage company goes out of business - it may be WHEN...Each one of these things - in and of itself - could be QUITE scary, even devastating, if the only copy of your photos is on a broken computer or an eau de toilette cell phone or a business gone kaput...Diversify your photo collection!

A print copy is great (especially if you store it safely) but also having a digital copy is better.

A digital copy on your computer is great but also having it backed up on another physical device (external hard drive) is better

A cloud storage copy is awesome but choosing two good cloud options is even better.

It may seem overwhelming to create so much redundancy for your photo collection, but only until you realize how overwhelmed you might feel if your only copy of your photos is...GONE!Protect your photo collection - Be redundant!

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

About a decade ago, my aunt asked for my help in compiling a photo album to combine the pictures and stories that my grandparents had amassed throughout their lives.They had left us a volume of information. Most of the photos were labeled, dated and were loaded with details - truly a blessing. My grandmother had also written a book of all of her personal memories. After searching through the photos, my aunt and I realized how many of the photos were depicted in the stories from her book. Our genealogy had also been chronicled back to the 4th century, again, by my grandmother - a genealogist.Where some families struggle with a lack of photos and information, our problem was we had so much. It took a lot of pre-planning to determine what we would include in the album, which items we wanted to reproduce for use in the albums and which of the volumes of stories we knew that we would tell in the book. Then, we had to figure out what order the items would go in to best highlight all that we had to work with.Since my maternal grandmother and grandfather were the main storytellers and also the most recent generation, we decided to begin with the two of them.First came my grandfather - we told the story of his childhood up to the time that he met my grandmother. Then, we went backwards in his direct lineage as far as we had photos and memorabilia that we could tell stories about. We presented my grandmother the same way.

Once we had established who they were and from whence they'd come, we told the story of their meeting, their marriage and their newlywed life.

Next, we followed them through their first houses, each of their three children (my mother, the aunt who was making the book with me and my uncle). We took the children through the beginning of their childhoods, basically their early family life.After that we decided to feature some special categorical chapters of their lives...the lake where they vacationed for many years, their pets through the years, their Christmas traditions, etc...

We didn't use all the items we had - nor did we tell all the stories - there could be many additional albums still to come. But the two-volume photo albums that we produced presented a real picture of who they were and told the stories that they themselves helped to author by being such prolific picture takers, detail labelers and storytellers.The last time I worked on finishing the album with my aunt, all that remained was to tell (write) the last few stories that accompanied some of the special photos we had chosen. My aunt opted to handwrite all of the captions and stories in the album. We used a combination of black and tan pages, kept our décor simple and our embellishments few. We tried to keep our decorations minimal so that they accompanied but didn't overpower the photos and words.My aunt debuted the albums to our extended family at a get together this summer. I wasn't able to attend. However, I instructed my aunt to let the family know that I would take on the venture of digitally documenting everything we produced in the two-volume (80+ page) albums in digital format so it could be shared and duplicated for as many family members as would want to possess it.We decided to scan and digitize every separate image in the album. Each would have very detailed metadata added to it's photo file. We would assure that all family members could access the photos and information those photos contained for generations to come.We also decided that I would use the individual scanned elements to re-create every album page from the original album and make as close to a duplicate album as is possible. The duplicate album could be printed as a real book and as many copies as were wanted could be produced. It's a big job.I have now finished scanning every item in the album. I am correctly naming and dating every photo as a file with keywords, correct dates, photo tags, and searchable details. Once complete, I will assure that those files are shared amongst the family in a long-term private digital photo sharing website. I will then use those scans to create a custom album that will be produced and given to all family members. WHEW! I am sure I will not finish the project in the one week I am here visiting my aunt and her original copies of the album. But, at least we are steps closer in the project and I will now sleep a bit easier knowing that there are safe, digital scans of these fabulous photos which are already backed up in multiple places both physically and in the cloud.I will continue to share pieces of the process as I work through this photo venture.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Today I spent an entire day re-living all the stories in my family's historical album. The photo below is if my grandmother at age 14. It was one if her favorites. She went to a professional studio to have it made. She was 14 and the photo was a gift to her parents.

Tomorrow I will talk a bit about the way we chose to order the album. Later in the week look for information about my digitizing process for this project.

I also have more personal family photos to share as well as a little story about dressing.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Today begins a personal photo history venture. Practice what you preach right? I've spent 20 days encouraging the wider world of readers to preserve and protect their family photo history and memorabilia...this week I will follow my own advice.I have traveled from my home in Philadelphia to my aunt's "old Kentucky home" in Louisville - a trek I have made several times before to assist in documenting our family history. This trip marks the culmination of a six year adventure in which my aunt and I have complied a priceless family photo album. It could not have been completed if my own grandmother had not tirelessly photographed and labeled so many bits and pieces of her life and then wrote a book that detailed all the minutia of her personal family history.I have traveled hundreds of miles to help digitize this family treasure so that it can be duplicated and shared with our entire family. We will also save each individual element in the album in a photo archive to be shared and available to all of our generations from now until forever.Stay tuned for snippets of this preservation adventure.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Explore - Capture - Shoot: It's on my bucket list.I've never actually sat down to write a bucket list. I have mixed feelings about it. If I create a bucket list and then don't complete something on that list do I mark it down as a failure? I'm one of those people who doesn't like to write down goals because I don't want to disappoint myself or others if I don't complete a goal I set.Just the origin of bucket list makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I mean - stuff I wanna do before I "kick the bucket" is a bit depressing. Rather I'd maybe have a "fill my life" list or a "while I live" list but what instead if I had an "explore capture shoot" list?Explore: Travel - Visit - Go - Adventure - EscapeCapture: Record, Write, See, Understand, Be part of, Experience, PreserveShoot: Photograph, Instagram, YouTube, Storybook, Video, FilmI wanted to be a world traveling, magazine feature article writing, photo journalist. Really. That was my original plan when I was just entering college and had decided to major in journalism. That's not what I ended up doing. But the idea of that never disappeared. Maybe it's not too late. Maybe I just have to re-define what that looks like.What if I were to take a year and spend every day Exploring, Capturing and Shooting... what if those three little words were to be the adventure that carried me off into new directions. How would I carry that out?... not the same way I imagined as I entered college and not the way I re-imagined it a decade later but maybe in a new way, a 50-something way, an empty-nester social media, self-taught photographer blogger instagrammer way.This idea has possibilities. I think I will try on this new mantra and see how it could maybe play out in my life - I like these three little words and how they could form a new adventure.If I were to combine my early photojournalistic dreams, with my current memory preservationist profession and add in the Explore Capture Shoot mantra - drop those all into the same bucket and give it a stir I'm curious to think what that mixture might become.Explore Capture Shoot...Explore Capture Shoot...Explore Capture Shoot...I'm going to mull this idea over for a while.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Here's a photo challenge...and a chance to create history right where you are!Having served on the board of my local historical society for a few years, I came to understand both the importance and the desire for photographic records of how our town looked throughout its history.Our society amassed a large photo collection of our town of about 40,000. During the time I served on the board I was amazed to learn how great the interest was in seeing how our town looked decades and even a century or more ago. We constantly got requests from individuals looking to learn more about their homes but also from local businesses hoping to connect themselves to the history of their locations. Many businesses were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a single large print of their location to display on their walls or to decorate their eating establishments.As I myself learned more about our local town history, I was surprised to find that a local shopping center had once been an airport, that the homes built across from my children's elementary school were built on what used to be a golf course and that the building at the top of my street used to be the local elementary school. Had I grown up in my home, I would have gone to that school. Where our new YMCA stands, a bubble gum factory once stood, some homes along busier streets are now businesses. Streets, businesses and neighborhoods will change vastly over time. What were dirt streets with a trolly track down the middle of them are now two lane highways, what were farmsteads are now a couple blocks of homes, what once were pathways for horse carriages and sleighs, then early vehicles are now modern roads full of cars. Even going back 40 years, most of the businesses a few blocks away have been replaced.So - here's your challenge. Be a photo journalist in your own home town. Take photos of businesses along a stretch of road, of town buildings and restaurants. Take photos of cars at intersections and of local roads during parades or other festivals, take pictures of the front of schools, of parks and recreation areas, etc. Capture now what will surely in a few decades be treasured records of history - you might even capture a photo that someone would be willing to pay you for!Create hometown history one photograph at a time.

Friday, September 18, 2015

If you've been reading my Save Your Photos posts for the past 17 days, you will understand by now that I am indeed a fan of writing and documenting and storytelling. So, today's words of photo wisdom might seem to completely contradict what I've been preaching.Let me slant it this way...I know a lot of people who rarely take photos - as I was snapping away, attempting to capture every single kid on the swim team at a high school meet, other parents sat calmly in the bleachers reading magazines, or chatting away with friends. I was always amazed that they didn't have a camera at the ready every second! So even though we have photo taking tools at our fingertips, many people still don't take them. It's not that those people don't enjoy photos or wouldn't love looking at a photo album, they are just not programmed to be shutter bugs. So to those people I will encourage many exposures - which for them is at the very least a few more than zero.Likewise, when I have suggested writing voluminous and eloquent descriptions in story form to accompany every photo (LOL), I know there are a lot of folks out there who just won't do that. Their eyes have rolled and they have clicked away to the next blog.So - let your words be few, but at least let there be that few.For you who don't like writing, hate your handwriting, are reminded of horrible days in the classroom forced to put pen to paper, okay, I get it.I spent many nights with the photo album ladies who attended the workshops at my house begging them to document SOMETHING in writing. I even gave them prizes if they "journaled" on a page after putting the photos on it. I had to redefine journaling for them. Captions - facts - basics - names - dates. I know we all think that a vacation or event is so amazing that we will remember the name of the great restaurant where we ate or will easily visit the same tour company we used. But, alas, we forget. The details dim over time - even for those of us who are detail-minded. And so, little bits and pieces of our lives disappear.Thus, I stress and I beg - that if you are the memory keeper in your household and your forget to take photos and hate to write about them, pull out a photo album that you have - sit in a comfy chair, relax. Look through the album, enjoy it - savor the memories. Think how you feel about having those photo memories... and then, encourage yourself to make more of them - the kind that can live on so that you and many others can enjoy that same feeling.At least if you won't write paragraphs - write a word.At least if you aren't a photo fanatic - click your phone a few times.You will be glad you did.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

When is the last time you sat down to write a story?My kids love to hear the same stories over and over about their childhood. Many of them aren't written down because there aren't really any photos that inspired those stories. Typically, I wrote about my kids when I was writing about pictures in a photo album.There are some stories that we tell over and over - funny things the kids did when they were little, humorous things they said, habits they had. We do talk about those things but they aren't recorded anywhere.When we are all together, talking about the past, I think it's amazing how many things my children remember that I have totally forgotten - and I have a really good memory. It's always then that I think, I should write them down. But where would I write them so we can share them over and over again and not forget the funny little details?Create a story page. A story page might not have ANY photos. It might be a list of their best memories of Halloween or things they did during a long car trip or even funny things they remember about each other. Write these down and add them to an album.Use family photos as prompts. Ask your kids if they remember what was happening in those photos - what they remember. Most of the stories in our album come from me, my reporting on what occured. But, I have a much different and more factual type of storytelling than my kids or my husband. Often, it's only my voice that the album is written in - but then I listen to the things they remember and I just KNOW that their stories need to be in there too.Likewise, my kids LOVE it when I tell them stories about them that they don't remember.There are bonds that form when you re-live stories together. Tell your family stories and let your family tell them to you. Then, write them down and save them in a place they can be read over and over again.Let your photo albums live on and let them speak in many voices.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

One of the best ways to capture your family memories is to ask someone in an older generation to tell you stories. Use photos as prompts. Ask who, what, why, where and when. Encourage storytelling. Record what is said.Take notes - write down the memories you wish to save and add them to the back of a photo or into a photo album or document them and store them along with your photos in a digital cloud storage.Audio Record - make a voice recording of the memories that are told by your relative have it transcribed.Video Record - make a digital recording of the memories being related to you by your relative. Transcribe the audio and preserve and archive the video.If you are not nearby and cannot personally record the memories and stories told by your relative consider writing a list of questions and have the relative write, type, or verbally detail the answers to someone who can make sure the answers get recorded.Use a soft stabilo pencil to write the basic details on the backs of photos that relatives can still identify.Bring photos and memorabilia to a family reunion and ask relatives to identify anyone they know and to relate stories about family history. Gauge the interest level of specific relatives who might have knowledge, stories or information about photos and previous generations - talk to them about helping you to preserve the knowledge they hold.Consider hiring a personal historian or genealogist to help you hunt down the information and stories about your family memories.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

I'm pretty adept at using the camera on my iphone6 but I wouldn't ever claim to know it all. There are so many clever people who must spend their entire day just sitting around dreaming up all the cool stuff you can do with a camera phone. Hopefully someone is paying them for their effort.Every now again, one of the blogs or news feeds I follow comes up with some hot new features that are buried right inside of my current phone - and probably yours too. I love to play around with all these new tricks. In a list of 10 things, there are probably only one or two that really stick in my old brain and that I continue to use repeatedly, but I love reading all there is.This post, in honor of save your photos day, is JUST FOR FUN... you have this awesome tool - now explore and play with it. Here are some posts that may just get you going:1. LIFEBUZZ photo tips.My favorite are the headphone button selfies. But the pano tip with the guy changing positions is pretty awesome too.2. RAD tips to try.Some of these are a bit over the top - but the trick with the sunglasses is stellar.3. Smartphone Camera Humor.This last one is a bit tongue and cheek but it might inspire you to use your phones in ways you've not yet thought of!I'm sure there are a million more things to explore on your smartphone. Got something too good not to share - put it in the comments section below!

Monday, September 14, 2015

I don't watch a lot of TV shows. But one show I happen to enjoy is the American Pickers. If you aren't familiar with that show, it's about two guys, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fretz, from Iowa who drive around the USA in a big van searching down bits of rusty, historical antiques that they buy from people and re-sell to other people. They do this out of both a desire for profitable commerce and a personal passion for preservation. They love the old stuff that is no longer manufactured. However, what can increase an item in value is if the seller has a personal story that goes along with the item. I have seen an object double or triple in value if there is a verifiable or personal story that can be essentially sold along with the piece. I believe this is the same with photos.Hereto is a comparison two types of photo albums, one plain (photos only, no words) and the other journaled (stories that accompany the photos).For about a decade I hosted album making workshops in my home at least once each month. At these occasions, I'd setup work tables, trashcans, provide food and beverages and invite over those women (though through the years we had a few men) who wished to create photo albums and tell their family stories. Years of observation taught me the importance of story telling with regards to ones photos.It always took the first half hour of the workshop for people to settle in, unpack their belongings and greet their friends. Early conversations of the evening often included the sharing of the photos that would be worked into an album. Seatmates were seen holding piles of their photos and flipping through the pictures of vacations, birthdays, etc... of the other women seated at their table. This was a time of lots of discussion and verbalization. Rarely did the looker know what was occurring in the photos. There was always the need to ask questions, beg explanations and loads of stories were shared. Whereas this is never a bad thing, to socialize over a stack of snapshots, it was something that required a lot of verbal explanations so that the viewer knew exactly what stories the photos were wanting to depict.Often these discussions assisted the album maker in determining what needed to be written, explained and related on an album page accompanying the photos. Sometimes the album maker asked questions of the tablemates wondering if the explanation was clear or if more details needed to be added. There was a great amount of information sharing. I knew it to be true that some people took vacations to spots they had first discovered when looking at someone else's photos.Photos and stories accompanied one another in the albums these women created.Other times I'd see someone at a friend's house flipping through a photo album with only pictures, no words or "journaling." There was rarely discussion if the album owner wasn't seated right next to the album viewer in order to offer explanations. Basically, the viewer wasn't as interested in the photos because they were sure of what they were looking at. They might not know where the photos were taken or what the occasion was. Without this additional information, the album was sometimes quickly put down before the viewer had finished looking all the way to the end.Now, the reason I notices this happening is because I looked for it. Always. I was constantly trying to convince myself that the workshop time I provided for the women who came to my house to make photo albums was necessary and important. I wanted to know that the time I spent opening my home to them was worthwhile, and thus, seeing the way a "plain" album was viewed as opposed to a "storied" album, I validated that a photo album that also contained stories and titles and captions held more interest to the viewer.I have come to firmly believe - though I can still only offer it as an opinion based on personal observations - that telling stories to accompany a photo is the way to make the photo truly live on into the future. The photos alone without the stories behind them are often just empty pictures of faces of unknown people - or at least they are at risk of being such to the future generations that encounter them. One of the most difficult things for me in my job as a personal photo organizer is when a family wishes to have me custom design a photo album for them that contains no stories, titles, or captions. These clean, modern albums are beautiful - and certainly easier for me to design than ones that require me to spend hours adding a client's verbage to the album in written form. So I design albums any way a client requests, but I'm always happy to spend as much time getting a cleint's stories presented in an album, regardless of how much editing it might require, as I do designing how the photos looks on the page.If creating a photo album on your own is too overwhelming or you feel you don't have the time or the skill or even the desire to learn how to make one, a personal photo organizer can custom design one specifically for you - typically, they design albums according to your style preferences. I love creating custom albums for families - if you need help creating one, contact me.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

So often when working with collections of old memorabilia, items are most precious when they contain a relative's original handwriting.Handwriting one's thoughts and memories is often replaced by computer typing in our current digital age. Take a little time to use a pen and paper. Scan your original penmanship - it will be a treasure for your future generations.I used to ask my clients which letters they opened first when they would bring in the mail, the typewritten label or the handwritten card...I used to ask my clients why they'd keep the recipe card written by their great grandmothers and covered with the splatters and splotches from her kitchen rather than re-type it so it's fresh and new and easier to read.There is just something about an item penned in an original hand.Get writing! (use cursive, apparently it's a dying art).

About Me

I'm Sher. Thanks for visiting. I'm a certified personal photo organizer and mother of four. I have more hobbies than I can keep up with, but I still try! I author a few blogs which I occasionally remember to update. I love to crochet, hike, camp, take photographs, sew, quilt and garden. I do my best to run and knit but I'm not so good at either and I'd love to learn yoga. I'm kind of crazy about the quality of my food - I won't eat anything with GMOs, I prefer real food made with real organic ingredients and I prefer to shop local.